How to write IVR scripts (with Arabic examples)

Callers rarely remember a good phone menu, but they always remember a bad one: the greeting that goes on for twenty seconds, the menu that lists seven options before the one they need, the holiday message still playing in February. Most of these problems start in the script, not in the phone system. This guide walks through how to write IVR prompts that people can follow on the first listen, with example scripts in Gulf Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic and English, and then shows how to turn them into audio files your phone system will accept.

What an IVR script actually contains

Before writing a single line, list every prompt your system plays. A typical small or mid-sized setup has:

• Welcome greeting: the first thing a caller hears. It names the business and, if needed, sets expectations.
• Main menu: the options ("for billing, press 1"). Sometimes followed by sub-menus.
• After-hours message: plays outside business hours, with the hours and an alternative (website, app, voicemail).
• Holiday and seasonal messages: Ramadan hours, Eid closures, national days, end-of-year changes.
• Hold and queue messages: short lines that play while the caller waits, optionally with their queue position.
• Voicemail prompt: what to say and what details to leave.
• Error prompts: "Sorry, that option is not available" and "We did not receive your choice".

Write each of these as its own file with a clear name, such as 01-welcome.wav or 20-after-hours-ramadan.wav. You will thank yourself the first time hours change.

Rules that make prompts easy to follow

Keep sentences short. On a phone line, the caller cannot scroll back. One idea per sentence, and ideally under fifteen words.

Put the most requested option first. If most callers want to track an order, that is option 1, not option 5.

Limit menus to four or five options. Beyond that, callers forget the first ones before the list ends. Use a sub-menu instead of a long single list.

Choose a digit convention and stick to it. There are two common orders:

• Option first: "For billing, press 1." The caller hears what they need, then the action. Many teams prefer this because callers listen for their topic.
• Digit first: "Press 1 for billing." Shorter and common in some markets.

Either works. Mixing them in the same menu is what confuses people.

Pause between options. A comma or a full stop in the script gives a natural breath. If your phone system lets you add silence between files, half a second between the greeting and the menu helps.

Do not repeat the business name in every prompt. Say it once in the greeting.

Use one voice everywhere. A caller who hears three different voices in one call assumes three different companies. Pick one voice per language and dialect and use it for every prompt.

Example scripts

These are starting points. Adapt the wording to your brand and your callers.

Gulf (Saudi) welcome and menu

هلا وغلا، معك خدمة عملاء متجر الريم. لتتبع طلبك، اضغط 1. للاستفسار عن المرتجعات، اضغط 2. وللتحدث مع أحد موظفينا، اضغط 3.

Egyptian after-hours

أهلًا بيك في خدمة عملاء شركة النيل. مواعيد العمل من الأحد للخميس، من 9 الصبح لحد 6 المسا. تقدر تتابع طلبك في أي وقت من التطبيق، أو تسيب رسالة بعد الصفارة وهنكلمك أول ما نبدأ.

Modern Standard Arabic hold message

شكرًا لانتظارك. جميع موظفينا مشغولون حاليًا بخدمة عملاء آخرين. سيُرَدّ على اتصالك في أقرب وقت ممكن، ويمكنك أيضًا زيارة موقعنا الإلكتروني للاطلاع على الأسئلة الشائعة.

English holiday message

Thank you for calling. Our offices are closed for the Eid holiday and will reopen on Sunday at 9 a.m. You can still track orders and request returns in our app at any time.

Notice that phone numbers, hours and dates are written the way they should be spoken. For Arabic, decide whether you want the colloquial reading («تسعة الصبح») or the formal one («التاسعة صباحًا») and write it out. Our guide to writing scripts for Arabic TTS covers numbers and tashkeel in more detail.

Choosing the dialect

Match the dialect to the caller, not to the head office. A Saudi bank's customers expect to be greeted in Saudi Arabic; an Egyptian delivery app sounds more natural in Egyptian. Modern Standard Arabic is the safe default when your callers come from many countries, or when the line is formal, such as a government service. Many businesses offer a language choice in the first prompt ("للعربية اضغط 1، For English press 2") and then keep each branch consistently in one language.

Generating the prompts in Vocla

1. Paste each prompt into text to speech as its own generation.
2. Pick one voice in your chosen dialect. Browse the voice library and listen for clarity rather than drama; a calm, even voice works best on phone lines.
3. Slow the pace slightly and keep clarity high. Phone audio removes a lot of detail, so crisp consonants matter more than expressiveness.
4. Add brand names, branch names and product terms to your pronunciation dictionary so they are read the same way in every prompt.
5. Download each file. Vocla exports MP3 on every plan and WAV on paid plans, at 24 kHz. For telephony, start from WAV.

Converting to a telephony format

On the Professional plan and above you can skip this step: the Phone menus tool generates the whole menu in one voice and exports every prompt directly as G.711 µ-law or A-law WAV, 8 or 16 kHz WAV, MP3 or GSM, with even loudness and a manifest. On other plans, convert the files yourself as below.

Most phone systems do not want a 24 kHz file. The common requirement is 8 kHz, mono, 16-bit PCM WAV, or the telephony codecs G.711 µ-law (common in North America and Japan) or A-law (common in Europe and much of the Middle East). Check your platform's documentation, then convert with the free tool ffmpeg.

8 kHz mono, 16-bit PCM WAV:

ffmpeg -i prompt.wav -ar 8000 -ac 1 -acodec pcm_s16le prompt-8k.wav

G.711 µ-law:

ffmpeg -i prompt.wav -ar 8000 -ac 1 -acodec pcm_mulaw prompt-ulaw.wav

G.711 A-law:

ffmpeg -i prompt.wav -ar 8000 -ac 1 -acodec pcm_alaw prompt-alaw.wav

To convert a whole folder at once on macOS or Linux:

for f in *.wav; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -ar 8000 -ac 1 -acodec pcm_s16le "8k-$f"; done

Then upload the converted files to your phone system as prompts or announcements. Always place a test call and listen on a real phone, not on your laptop speakers: that is where you will notice an option read too quickly or a pause that is missing.

Keeping prompts up to date

The real advantage of generated prompts is maintenance. When hours change for Ramadan, or a new branch opens, edit the text, regenerate the one affected file, convert it and upload it, usually in minutes. Keep your scripts in a shared document next to the file names so anyone on the team can make the change.

For more on dialects, formats and setup, see our guide to creating an IVR phone menu and the customer support use case.